160 THE COMPLETE ANGLER. PART i. 



and a very little thin lead, so put upon the shank of the hook 

 that it may sink presently. Throw this bait, thus ordered, 

 which will look very yellow, into any great still hole where a 

 trout is, and he will presently venture his life for it, it is not to 

 be doubted, if you be not espied ; and that the bait first touch 

 the water before the line. And this will do best in the deepest 

 water. 



Next let me tell you, I have been much pleased to walk 

 quietly by a brook with a little stick in my hand, with which I 

 might easily take these, and consider the curiosity of their com- 

 posure: and if you shall ever like to do so, then note, that your 

 stick must be a little hazel or willow, cleft, or have a nick at one 

 end of it ; by which means you may with ease take many of 

 them in that nick out of the water, before you have any occasion 

 to use them. These, my honest scholar, are some observations 

 told to you as they now come suddenly into my memory, of 

 which you may make some use; but for the practical part, it is 

 that that makes an angler: it is diligence, and observation, and 

 practice, and an ambition to be the best in the art, that must do 

 it. I will tell you, scholar, I once heard one say, '{JLfcnyy not 

 hjm thnt rntn brtfpr meat .han I do^ nor him that is richer, or 

 tbat w p ars better clothes th nn T ^ n ; T ^nvv nobody but him, 

 him only, that catches mnrp fish than I do.' 1 And such a 

 s jike toproye an angler; and this noble emulation! wish 

 to youancl all young anglers. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



OF THE MINNOW OR PENK, OF THE LOACH, AND OF THE 

 BULL-HEAD OR MILLER'S THUMB. 



PlSC. There be also three or four other little fish that I had 

 almost forgot, that are all without scales, and may for excellency 

 of meat be compared to any fish of greatest value and largest 

 size. They be usually full of eggs or spawn all the months of 

 summer ; for they breed often, as it is observed mice, and many 



